A/N Thank you to everyone who followed and red and wrote reviews! It's nice to know that people are reading!

Chapter 2

Since Allen had been to a nearby place before, it didn't take long for them to reach the place where the innocence was supposed to be. In contrast, the field itself was a slightly more difficult to find. When Allen and Lenalee arrived at the entrance to the town there were a few people out, the market was open, and some small children were running about instead of being in classes. The sun shone brightly once again, and yet another day filled their lives with a clarity and simplicity Allen had so missed.

He was half tempted to walk on the grass just on the outskirts of the path they were walking on, but with Lenalee taking the situation seriously, he knew he should too. It wasn't that he wasn't going to take it seriously when they needed to, but the need to celebrate being an exorcist once again was building up within him, and his young mind wanted to be happy about it all.

"Where was it that the villager said we could find the mirror again?" He asked as he took a bite from some bread he bought at a nearby stall.

Lenalee was looking around quietly, also taking in the surroundings. "He simply said we would know… but there don't seem to be fields in any area nearby… and I didn't see one on the way into town…"

"Should we split up…?" He offered, his mouth full of food. It took special skill to speak with food on either side of his cheeks, but he had plenty of years of practice to help perfect his abilities.

Allen was making his way away from Lenalee when she took a hold of his sleeve and held him back. "Allen… you know this is still a test right…? If things go wrong… then who knows what they'd do to you. Please…" She turned and took his hands, causing him to drop the bag of remaining bread. It landed up right with nothing spilling, but it still took him by surprise.

Heat rose to his cheeks and he didn't really know how to react. "Please just… Can you be careful? I don't want to lose you again. None of us do!"

That was why she'd been so distant lately. She was worried, and he should have known that. Of course he knew that he had always been a bit dense, but it explained her short sentences with him. She also probably felt guilty for allowing herself to be a part of testing him. "I know that you're fine! I know that you're an exorcist. Remember…? Remember when you promised that to me…? I know it but- But the others don't! And I can't lose another member of my family, Allen! I can't-"

"Lenalee." It felt nice to be worried about, to have someone who cared about what happened to him. He knew that he couldn't put himself in danger, and he couldn't lose the faith that Lenalee, and in connection Komui, had for him. They'd more than likely gotten him this mission so that he could prove himself to the higher ups. "I won't let you down. I promise." He looked into her eyes intensely and he knew that his message was being shared to her. He willed his belief in himself onto her, so that she could rest easy.

She seemed to relax with his promise, and her stiffened shoulders dropped with her sigh of relief. A steady breeze blew between them and she pushed her dark shoulder length hair back behind her ear. "Thank you Allen… If that's the case… and you promise to be safe, then splitting up will be a good idea. We can take left and right sides, as long as we promise to meet up at center square before night fall."

Glancing to where she pointed, he could see a large and ornate fountain with water cascading in such a manner that made the water seem like thin curtains of silk, instead of a moving liquid. In the center of it stood a statue of a woman, her arms outstretched as if begging for more water. Near the bottom pond where the water was sucked up back into circulation, stood a few children. Their attempts at stealing a few wishing pennies from inside lead to one of them falling inside and becoming drenched.

Allen confirmed to his partner the plan, and they split up with occasional glances at once another every couple of feet. Allen's were reassuring, while Lenalee held her hand to her heart, unsure if he would be safe by himself. "I'll be fine Lenalee!" He promised one more time before he walked away. This time he didn't look back, so that he wouldn't look as unsure as Lenalee probably felt.

His first step to proving himself would be to find the Innocence before Lenalee did. It was not in his nature to outdo her, or even attempt to. This was not supposed to be a competition, and they should instead be working together. In this situation though, it would look much better if he was able to gather the innocence and bring it back to the Order with her. That was why he walked over to the small kids and helped pull them out of the fountain.

"Excuse me… do you know anything about the mirror…? It's supposed to be magic, and shows the opposite of what is going on…?" He asked politely and even offered his own bread from the bag that he'd had to pick back up.

One of the children wore a newsboy cap, and he wrong the water out of the fabric while his friends scarfed down the offerings from the older male. "Yeah… Why? D'ya want it…?"

"Sort of." Allen offered. He sat on the edge of the fountain, wondering if it was supposed to be this easy. "I have to investigate it essentially… figure out if it's dangerous or not you see."

The children all seemed to nod in unison, their childlike understanding much easier to speak to than the understanding of an adult. "Well, we're not supposed to say. You see, it's bringing people into town, and we're going to start making more money soon! We didn't have anything special about us before! But now that the rumor is out about it, people come by searching for it!"

The begging statue in the center of town and lack of people made sense. Allen studied the children and noticed their clothes somewhat tattered, patches sewn about on elbows and knees to fixed parts that were too big to just simply be sewn back together.

"I don't break it, I promise. I just want to examine it for now."

The children once again seemed to accept his sincerity and agreed to show him where it was. The small boy with the newspaper cap took Allen by the hand and pulled on him. He was small and had obviously been hungry, so his strength wasn't much, but Allen didn't need much to be guided to the destination.

They lead him to the edge of town, where the town seemed to recede and meet at the stone wall that surrounded it. A sharp turn here, and another there, and he stood in front of an old abandoned church. It didn't seem to be too dilapidated, but he could also not see any fields nearby.

"H-Here..?" Perhaps the kids had lead him astray, or made a fool of him, or maybe they didn't even know themselves.

"Yeah! It's inside."

"A field… inside of the church…?" He asked, doubtful. It was a well-known fact, however, that he had seem much stranger things. Glowing trees, and ghosts that played chess still stood at the back of his mind, and he knew that he shouldn't doubt what they said. It was his job to investigate strange things. So he pushed his doubt away, thanked the kids and walked inside. He had to ignore the fact that they followed him once inside from a safe distance, but he pretended to not know they were tailing him.

Now, innocence had always been strange, but it never seemed to stop taking his breath away. Sure enough, inside the abandoned church was a large field. Grass seeds must've gathered in the wind and planted themselves inside. As far as he could see it was all bright and clean and well taken care of. There were no patches in the plants, and because the church had been huge, other plant lives thrived inside as well.

Then just in the middle, a gleam caught his eye, and he spotted the mirror in question. It was a simple tall looking mirror that stood on four legs. It's glass edges were decorated by intricate golden designs that Allen was sure the townspeople would have sold could they get their hands on it.

He made his way through the green that grew on the ground, and treaded lightly. He didn't know if it was because he wanted to be careful near the innocence, or because he didn't want to ruin the tranquility of the space. Either way, it took a couple of moments for him to finally reach the center, where the mirror stood. Now he could see the designs much better, and he could see the kids in the background, watching closely.

He barely had a chance to really look, when the children were stepped through by a tall man with long curly hair, dragging a trail of cigarette smoke behind him. He spun to face the real version of Tyki Mikk instead of the reflection. "You-!"

"Me? Why would you question my being here…? It's my job to break innocence. You know that." He spread his arms in a shrug but didn't drop the cigarette he kept in his hands. "Now, I know you're just going to give me a hassle, but it wouldn't hurt to just ask you to just go home and leave the mirror would it…?" He asked. A smile spread on his face as Allen activated his innocence and rushed forward with sword in hand. Feathers and white surrounded the area in a beautiful, almost angelic way. He was a warrior for the Innocence, and would never be a Noah, this form of innocence claimed it so.

The kids ran away screaming, calling for help, but Allen's ears blocked it as he focused on the Noah in front of him. "That's like me asking for you to stop working for the Earl. I could ask but it'll never happen!"

Tyki's smile began a menacing grin that spread wide and inhumanely from ear to ear. "You're right. Never gonna happen, Boy." When Allen's sword his Tyki, the older man brought s familiar teeze butterfly from inside him and used it as a shield from the attack. It was his turn to rush the boy, and he did much the same, only using his hand as the weapon instead. It would do no good to get the Earl mad at him for killing him, but if he could take out any organ enough to knock him out, he could just put it back in and the Earl would never know.

That's how organs worked right? In any case, he intended to find out. He wasn't a doctor, but he'd do a bit of surgery on Allen Walker, he decided.

The two banged at one another, dodging and attacking, then dodging again. When Allen slashed his sword at Tyki, and the man returned the attack with a swipe to Allen's nonfighting arm. They seemed evenly matched, and stood separate from one another, chests heaving up and down from adrenaline. "You don't even know what you're fighting for… In fact, there's so much you don't actually know is there…?" Tyki Mikk laughed.

"I know you kill innocent people and turn them into puppets for the Earl's damned game! That's all I need to kn-…" He stopped as he heard a giggle behind him.

Allen hadn't realized he'd been pushed back to the same spot, only closer to the mirror than previously. Behind him he could see himself reflected back. It took a moment to register the shock of what he saw. There was himself facing the same direction he currently was, but the mirror itself showed him to have dark gray skin and the same scary smile that Tyki currently had. Tyki, on the other hand, had on the red and black uniform Allen currently wore.

While staring at the reflections, Allen didn't notice that he'd not been paying attention to the battle before him. Tyki once again came forward with an incredible speed no normal human could match, He pushed once again and knocked Allen off his feet. Supposed to land on his back, Allen grabbed at the mirror to help him get steady. If he was caught on his back, it could mean death by Noah attack. However, when he fell backward, there was no glass to stop him. Instead he fell and continued to fall.

His eyes were wide as he watched Tyki Mikk stare him down. The Noah was just as shocked as he was to fall backward into the mirror, but as he reached out to pull him away, Tyki was thrown backward and Allen fell the rest of the way into the mirror…

He remembered falling backward, but somehow ended up landing on his face instead. At first he couldn't get up, and couldn't really register how it had happened. Grabbing for the grass beneath his gloved hands, he tried his best to stand up as quickly as he could, but it felt as though the innocence had taken his breath and strength from him. He groaned beneath his weight for a moment, but then was pushed back down onto the ground.

"Stay down." The voice was familiar, that of a woman's in fact. "What were you doing inside that? Hurry up and answer before we have to-"

"Road, calm down. He's wearing an exorcist uniform after all…" That voice was just as familiar. In fact, he'd just been speaking to it.

Tyki Mikk.

Allen turned his head so that his cheek was on the cool wet of the grass. "Tyki… Mikk…? Road… Kamelot…?" He asked, his lips bringing in water from the wet of the grass. It was then he noticed it was raining here. Just as Komui had said, it was sunny back in his world, so it would be raining here of course. He got a glimpse of shiny red shoes and he glanced up to peek at what he could barely believe.

In truth, just as he had thought, there stood the two he'd known as Noahs for the large amount he knew them. They looked surprised, but no one looked more surprised than he had. "How do you know our names…? Are you from another branch…?" Road lifted her foot from him and only then did he realize that she had been holding him down. His mind had been racing far too much for him for him to realize much of anything.

Tyki reached out and helped him to his feet. The man, just as usual had a cigarette in his mouth that didn't seem to waiver. Flapping it's wings by his head was a golem that seemed to have butterfly wings and was reminiscent of the teeze that had almost killed Allen all those months ago. Beside him the purple haired girl he'd known for even longer stood, her gaze just as untrusting as the one he'd given them plenty of times. They both wore a version of the red and black uniform that adorned his back.

Road leaned in closer, as if to inspect him, and her bright blue eyes met with his silver and things froze for a moment. Allen felt he couldn't handle it all, and he felt his knees buckle within him and the world went dark…,

"Woah there! He must be injured!"